Weird science

Baking never ceases to amaze and confound me. So ... these two are my first bakes of the year, made to more or less my usual recipe.

The left : the usual 200g wholemeal rye, 500g standard wholemeal, 200g strong white. All I did differently was use a 24 hour preferment for the first time. And use a stand mixer. Mostly. It just would NOT come together so I finished it off by hand, before a 2hr prove.

Still smells heavenly 24 hours out of the oven, but is a lot flatter than I usually manage.

The right: a 4hr preferment & ran short of the wholemeal rye so it was 75g of that and 125g white rye. The rest the same. All mixed by hand.

Fantastic rise.

Conclusions? I mix a helluva lot better by hand than my Kenwood; was it the day-long preferment making it smell so wonderfully? I've yet to taste either, but I'm looking forward to both, particularly the one on the left!